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Trifolium aureum

species of plant

Specimen drawers, botanical folios and brass scientific instruments under study light
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ158941 ↗
Source-derived summary

Trifolium aureum, known by the various common names large hop trefoil, large trefoil, large hop clover, golden clover or hop clover, is a species of flowering plant native to much of Eurasia.

Description

Large hop trefoil is a small erect herbaceous biennial plant growing to 10–30 cm (4–12 in) tall. Like all clovers, it has leaves divided into three sessile leaflets, each leaflet 15–25 mm (5⁄8–1 in) long and 6–9 mm broad.

The yellow flowers are arranged into small, elongated round inflorescences 12–20 mm diameter, located at the end of the stem. Each individual flower is decumbent. As they age, the flowers become brown and paper-like. The fruit is a pod usually containing two seeds.

Similar plants

Other plants that have three leaflets and small yellow flowers include T. campestre (hop trefoil, which is shorter with smaller foliage), T. dubium (lesser hop trefoil), Medicago lupulina, and Oxalis stricta.

Distribution and habitat

Trifolium aureum is native throughout Europe (in Spain only in the northeast), western and northern Asia, and the Middle East (in Ciscaucasia and western Siberia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, northern Iran, Lebanon and Turkey). It is also native to the Canary Islands.

Editorial summary

“Trifolium aureum” enters the record as species of plant. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Trifolium, aureum and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical orientation to terminology and classification, particularly when read beside dated observations, specimens or technical literature. The current 192-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Trifolium, aureum and species.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Trifolium aureum” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Trifolium, aureum and species provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q158941. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

Scientific names, classifications and consensus can change while older terminology persists in catalogues and historical literature. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Check terminology, classification and the date of the cited evidence. Scientific names and technical consensus can change while older records retain historical value.

Best used for
  • Current terminology
  • Classification context
  • Finding cited technical literature
Verify next

Primary datasets, specimen catalogues, standards bodies and the most recent peer-reviewed literature.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Trifolium aureum”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Trifolium aureum primary sources, Trifolium aureum archive and Trifolium research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Trifolium aureum”?
  2. Has classification or technical consensus changed since the cited source?
  3. Which observation, specimen, dataset or publication supports the account?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Trifolium aureum” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.